Title: Beyond Usability: UserCentered Design Strategies Christina Wodtke :: christinacarboniq.com Carbon IQ
1Beyond UsabilityUser-Centered Design
Strategies- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-Christina Wodtke christina_at_carboniq.com Ca
rbon IQ User Experience Group http//www.carboniq
.comtel 415 824 7090
2Introduction to user-centered design
Its more than usability testing
NO!
3Introduction to user-centered design
A method for understanding and considering the
person who will experience your design while you
design
4Introduction to user-centered design
- A way to get user reactions and feedback to
design - Performed throughout the entire product
development cycle - Used to ensure a usable product
- Iterative
5Introduction to user-centered design
6Introduction How does it work?
- Learn who the user is.
- Design for that user
- Create a rough prototype to test with the people
who will use it. - Revise based on what you learned.
- Build a prototype that is close to the finished
thing. - Test again.
- Make fixes based on what you learned.
- Ship the product. Include a feedback device so
you can make the next version even better.
7Introduction Who does it?
- Internal User Research Specialist
8Introduction Who does it?
- Internal User Research Specialist
- Outside Consultant
9Introduction Who does it?
- Internal User Research Specialist
- Outside Consultant
- You
10Introduction Why do it?
- Know if the product meets user needs before you
build it - Cheap to change a sketch
- Affordable to change a Photoshop comp
- Expensive to change fully coded product
- Customer service expensive as well
11Introduction Why do it?
- Enable you to develop easy-to-use products
- Satisfy customers
- Decrease expenditures on technical support and
training - Advertise ease-of-use successes
- Improve brand perception
- Ultimately increase market share
- Next who are the users?
12Who are the users of the system?
- Start by collecting pre-existing information
- Hunt down previous data (marketing demographics,
surveys, past usability tests) - Hold stakeholder interviews
- Conduct customer service interviews
- Next Talk to the user recruiting
13Finding the end user
- Recruiting
- Develop a portrait of the user (a la the persona)
- Develop a screener based on this
- Recruit typical end users
- Professional recruiter
- Do it yourself
- Offer a consideration cash or a gift
- Watch for ringers
- Professional testers
- Inarticulate users
14Not the end user
- Employees
- Designers
- Programmers
- Market researchers
- You
- Next Contextual Inquiry
15Talk to the end user Questionnaires
- What is it?
- Series of questions to be answered by users
- Mail,or on website
- Quantitative, rather than qualitative
- Good for gathering large amounts of facts
- Less reliable when dealing with opinions
- People lie, and with very little reason
16Talk to the end user Questionnaires
- Two types
- Factual
- Gender male or female
- Do you drink coffee daily?
- Opinion
- From a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is easy and 5 is
difficult, how hard was it to use this system? - Would you buy this product?
17Talk to the end user Questionnaires
- Tips
- Keep it short
- Do multiple surveys, rather than one long
- Phrase questions cautiously
- Use Likert scales
- Keep it anonymous, and state that in the
beginning - Allow single vote per IP
- Next Contextual Inquiry
18Talk to the end user Contextual Inquiry
19Talk to the end user Contextual Inquiry
- What is it?
- Observe users in the environment they use your
product - Watch them use the product
- Understand their behavior by encouraging them to
think out loud - Remember to compare what they say and what they
do.
20Talk to the end user Contextual Inquiry
- Technique Thinking-out-loud
- Also used in usability testing, participatory
design - Users encouraged to voice their thoughts as they
use the product - Try an exercise to illustrate
21Talk to the end user Contextual Inquiry
- Running a contextual inquiry
- Recruit a number of typical end-users
- Visit the location where they would use your
product - Ask them to show you how currently do their tasks
- Ask them to accomplish those tasks with your
product - Analyze your results
- Next personas
22Personas
23Persona development
- Personas are
- A key to user-centered design
- Not The User but one particular user
- Inform the entire design process
- Who are we designing for?
- What are we designing?
- How will we design it?
- Does this design work?
24Persona development/user profiling
- Personas are
- Archetypal users
- Conglomerates based on user data
- Built collaboratively by team
- Useful for keeping users front-of-mind
25Grace
- (62/ female/ widowed/ Little Rock, AR.)
- I like playing my favorite games online, but if
I can play with friends, well thats even
better! -
- Personal Background Her husband has passed on.
She has two grown kids, both of whom live far
away. She misses the kids, but has a fairly large
circle of friends that she spends time with. -
- Technical Proficiency Profile Limited. Can use
her browser and her email. MS Word confuses her,
and she doesnt like using it. Doesnt know what
an OS is. Tends to click yes if the browser
prompts her to do anything, and will click wildly
until things work. - History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms Plays
crossword puzzles daily and saves them. Plays
card games, PhotoJam, but is offended by South
Park cartoons - Shockwaves opportunity If Grace can be
convinced to participate in community activities,
she will become a loyal user of the site. She
needs to be sheltered from the sick and twisted
content, however. -
-
26Sarah
- (22/ female/ single/ Washington, DC.)
- I like AtomFilms because its just about the
films -
- Personal Background Liberal arts education at
college in the Midwest Just graduated and moved
to DC. Has a dog Likes music and art. Went to
Lilith Fair. Sends out mass emails about causes
she cares about, or jokes. - Profession Editor for non-profit organization
(35K/yr) - History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms First
came to AtomFilms because she did a search on
Sundance content. Shes heard about the merger
with AtomFilms, and is very worried about
AtomFilms losing its edge, or begin buried in the
Shockwave.com site. She thinks some controversial
material might be hidden if AtomFilm gets merged
with Shockwave. - Shockwaves opportunity If Shockwave can prove
they are trustworthy enough to coax her into
signing up, she will become a loyal visitor and
shortlist subscriber. If she feels clicking
through ads will help Shockwave support
independent film, she will.
27Scott
- (17/ male/ single/ Shaumburg, IL.)
- I want something cool and really on the edge.
Something you cant get on TV - 2 most common user
-
- Profession Full time student (studies exercise
and sport science) - Personal Background Youngest kid in family of
five. Likes to be seen as a little rebellious.
Excited to be in college, but not really brave
enough yet to actually do anything rebellious, so
uses Internet to express his self-image. - History with Shockwave and/or AtomFilms hes
been to Shockwave a few times, and usually clicks
games as soon as the navigation bar loads. He
likes playing arcade games, and shoot em ups.
Spend two hours playing King of the Hill
paintball recently. - Shockwaves opportunity he is already hanging
out in the games section regularly. If shockwave
can introduce him to its sick and twisted
material, it can keep him on the website longer,
and use his tendency to send out links to spread
the word. -
28Persona development/user profiling
- How to create
-
- Summarize findings, distribute to stakeholders.
- Hold a work session with stakeholders
development team to brainstorm personas. - Prioritize and cull lesser personas to develop
primary and supporting personas.
29Prioritize personas
30Prioritize personas
31Prioritize personas
secondary
primary
special
32Use personas
- Keep them near
- Hang them on your wall
- Make poster, placemats, puppets
- Role-play personas
- Evaluate with them
- Next mental models
33Analyzing what youve learned.
- Mental Models - diagram of the end users
perception of product - Study the user
- Map the mental model
- Design from the mental model
34Designing with what youve learned.
35A simple mental model
36A simple mental model
37A complex model
38Map the mental model
- Pencil and paper
- Write down how the user thinks
- Sketch it dont worry about being pretty
- Adjust by addingbusiness restraints
- Design from this model
- Share with developmentteam
39Designing with what youve learned
- Persona Scenarios the power of story telling
- Get your personas out
- Tell ideal user experience for one persona
- Adjust for business constraints
- Build for this scenario
40Example Persona Scenario
41Designing what youve learned.
- Task analysis
- Step by step breakdown of scenarios
- Helps define interface/interaction needs
- Flushes out potential opportunities for errors
42Designing what youve learned
- Task analysis
- Start with scenario
- Break it up into discreet tasks
- Subdivide into smaller steps
43Task analysis
- Purchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might
include the tasks - 1. locate purse
- 2. add purse to shopping cart
- 3. check out
44Task analysis
And so on
45Example Task analysis
46Designing for the end user - and with them!
- Prototyping
- Simple low-fi mockup
- Often paper or simple html
- Early or not designed
- Quick, easy to revise
47Designing with the user
- How to Designing and Preparing a paper prototype
test - Required paper, pens, tape, scissors and 3
people - Use paper and hand draw prototype
- One person acts as the computer, one as
moderator, one takes notes - Ask users to accomplish tasks
- Make small changes as needed
- Paper prototyping kit available at
http//www.infodesign.com.au/usability
48Rapid prototyping
- Paper or html
- Very early stage design, or half complete design
- Allow time between tests to make changes
- Note where design gets better or worse
- You should be making fewer changes as the test
continues - The report is partly the final prototype
- Next card sorting
49Participatory Card Sort
- Way to understand users mental models and
language - Useful on sites with large amount of content
50How to Running a successful card sort
- 50-75 pieces of content (not categories!)
- Provide as much information as possible while not
overwhelming - Lay all content out on a large table, shuffled
thoroughly - Provide blanks for category labels
- Encourage thinking-out-loud
- Be helpful, but do not suggest or advise. Play
psychiatrist. - Collate results and look for patterns.
51Usability testingat last or at first?
- Do testing while you still have time to fix
problems - Do testing before a redesign
52Fighting for it.
You will have to fight. Prepare your arguments in
advance.
53More reading
- Contextual Design
- Dont Make Me Think
- Designing Web Usability
- Inmates are Running the Asylum
- Software For Use
- All can be found at
- http//www.eleganthack.com/reading/
- (and more!)
54More reading
- Usable Web http//www.usableweb.com
- Usability Toolbox http//www.best.com/jthom/usab
ility/ - Ask Toghttp//www.asktog.com/
- Useit.com Jakob! http//www.useit.com
- UIE.com Jared
- http//www.uie.com
55Conclusion
- User-centered design works
- It makes good business sense
- Its affordable
- Its satisfying
56Questions?- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-Christina Wodtke christina_at_carboniq.com Ca
rbon IQ User Experience Group http//www.carboniq
.comtel 415 824 7090